10/05/2010 @ 12:37AM1,161 views

How The Internet Plays Key Role In China's New Long March To Modernization

October 1 marks the 61st anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. For Chinese, 60 years represent one cycle in the Chinese calendar, which gives this 61st anniversary special significance.

For the first 30 years of the People’s Republic, China was dominated by Mao’s presence and his emphasis on politics and political movements at the expense of almost everything else. In the beginning, the political campaigns began as an inconvenience, but gradually became more extreme, culminating in the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, which permanently scarred Chinese society in very profound ways. The next 30 years after Mao died were largely about bringing China up from poverty and healing those wounds.

The period from 1978 till today, from an economic development point of view, are a huge success. China has risen from beggar nation status to one of the world’s wealthiest if measured by cash reserves. The Chinese government speaks with a new confidence, which often comes across as worrying, especially to its neighbors in the region, such as Japan, India and the members of ASEAN. In the Chinese officially controlled media, there are endless reminders of how much the government has done to raise Chinese standards of living, and frequently vilifying any criticism of official policy. The official line is that everything will be fine if China continues on its current path of development.

The only problem is that no one in China really believes that continuing previous policy will work. Chinese, through their actions, have made it very clear that they want more than just a higher standard of living and economic growth. Frequently, they feel that they are victims of corrupt local officials who have abused their power to enrich themselves. Furthermore, the system does not have checks and balances through which people can make appeals for justice. Since all political, legislative and executive power is dominated by one institution which has 79 million members, there are no other channels for the average Chinese citizen.

Until now.

In today’s China, the only system which permits some kind of appeal and checks and balances is the Internet. One of the most interesting stories in China which most foreign observers have missed is how the Chinese, in their own very ingenious ways, have adapted the Internet to fit their needs. In a previous article, I talked about how Sina’ s adaptation of Twitter, Sina Weibo, has become a tool for digital petitions to the Beijing central government, completely circumventing corrupt local officials. This presents a special challenge to Sina editors who are in charge of censoring content in real-time on Weibo on the government’s behalf. If they allow the content to go out, it will spread rapidly, creating a huge number of followers and supporters. If they suppress it, they will seem like they are working in collusion with corrupt local officials.

What are they to do?

In another instance, a Chinese author published a novel online, and was arrested and jailed for publishing pornographic content. Many Chinese came to his defense, and in the face of protests which came ONLY on the Internet, the author was released. Please note: because it is very hard for protesters to organize in the real world, Chinese are organizing to protest on the Internet. And they are doing it very successfully.

So, when Google and other western companies protest censorship in China, they really miss the big story. The Chinese Internet represents a channel for Chinese which they have not had before in the first 61 years of the People’s Republic. It represents a channel for protests and representations which did not exist during Mao’s lifetime. And it is VERY effective. This power comes from the Chinese people and their ability to swiftly organize on the Internet.

Google’s failure to grow significantly in China is based on its failure to understand how the Chinese would develop the Internet to suit their own needs. Sina is a company which is under very tight Chinese government supervision, yet they developed Sina Weibo. Why couldn’t Google have developed it? My guess is that Google’s management wasted so much attention and cycles on the government censorship issue that they failed to spot any other opportunities in China.

And western political pundits who support more freedom for Chinese miss the point by complaining about the Great Firewall of China. Most of the sites outside the GFW are in English anyway, a language the vast majority of Chinese just are not interested in. Instead of building more tools to go outside the GFW, they should focus on building tools to make it easier for Chinese to express themselves on the Internet within China. Ironically, Sina has done a much better job at this than Google.

Looking to its next 60 years, it is plain to see that economic development at the expense of everything else will not be sufficient to satisfy most Chinese. They want accountable government and freedom to express their ideas, and to live in dignity. Only when Chinese have free access to information will Chinese society become truly modern.

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